Automatic User Availability Status Determination for a Handheld Communication Device

1. A method for determining the availability status of a user of a handheld communication device, the method comprising, at the handheld communication device: periodically checking whether or not there are any implicit unattended-to notifications at the handheld communication device, the unattended-to notifications comprising at least one of an unattended-to message and an unattended-to phone call, and if so, deeming the availability status to be Unavailable, but otherwise deeming the user availability status to be Available.

2. A method as in claim 1 , further comprising checking whether or not the availability status has been explicitly or semi-explicitly set to Unavailable, and if so, bypassing the checking.

3. A method as in claim 2 , wherein, after bypassing, there is no further checking until when and if the availability status is set to Available.

4. A method as in claim 2 , wherein after bypassing, there is no further checking until a predetermined time interval has passed.

5. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the unattended-to message comprises at least one of: an unattended to e-mail; and an unattended to SMS message.

6. A handheld communication device provided with a physical computer-readable medium containing instructions, which, when executed by the handheld communication device, cause the handheld communication device to perform a method for determining the availability status of a user of the device, the method comprising, at the handheld communication device: periodically checking whether or not there are any implicit unattended-to notifications at the handheld communication device, the unattended-to notifications comprising at least one of an unattended-to message and an unattended-to phone call, and if so, deeming the availability status to be Unavailable, but otherwise deeming the user availability status to be Available.

7. A handheld communication device as in claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises checking whether or not the availability status has been explicitly or semi-explicitly set to Unavailable, and if so, bypassing the checking.

8. A handheld communication device as in claim 7 , wherein after bypassing, there is no further checking of availability status until when and if the availability status is set to Available.

9. A handheld communication device as in claim 7 , wherein after bypassing, there is no further checking of availability status until a predetermined time interval has passed.

10. A handheld communication device as in claim 6 , wherein the unattended-to message comprises at least one of: an unattended to e-mail; and an unattended to message.

11. A method for determining the availability status of a user of a handheld communication device, the method comprising, at the handheld communication device: periodically checking whether or not there are any implicit unattended-to notifications at the handheld communication device, the unattended-to notifications comprising at least one of an unattended-to message and an unattended-to phone call, and if so, deeming the availability status to be Unavailable, but otherwise deeming the user availability status to be Available; periodically checking whether or not a predefined timeout has elapsed from the last use of a mechanical feature of the device by the user, and if the timeout has not elapsed, deeming the availability status to be Available; if the timeout has elapsed, checking to see if a real-time application is in use, and if so, deeming the availability status to be Available; and if a real time application is not in use, carrying out the checking whether or not there are any unattended-to notifications.

12. A handheld communication device provided with a physical computer-readable medium containing instructions, which, when executed by the handheld communication device, cause the handheld communication device to perform a method for determining the availability status of a user of the device, the method comprising, at the handheld communication device: periodically checking whether or not there are any implicit unattended-to notifications at the handheld communication device, the unattended-to notifications comprising at least one of an unattended-to message and an unattended-to phone call, and if so, deeming the availability status to be Unavailable, but otherwise deeming the user availability status to be Available; periodically checking whether or not a predefined timeout has elapsed from the last use of a mechanical feature of the device by the user, and if the timeout has not elapsed, deeming the availability status to be Available; if the timeout has elapsed, checking to see if a real-time application is in use, and if so, deeming the availability status to be Available; and if a real time application is not in use, carrying out the checking whether or not there are any unattended-to notifications.